The Noise around us is almost a complete hush. “How are you doing this?” I ask.
“But I was wrong, you see?” he says. “When I saw what was going to happen with Mistress Coyle, when I saw that I had failed to predict it but that you had, Todd, and you saved me–” He stops and I swear it’s cuz his voice is too filled with emoshun to go on. “When you saved me, Todd, that’s when everything changed. When everything fell into place.”
(and the hum, gleaming like a lighthouse in my head–)
(that joy–)
(it feels good–)
“We could make this world better,” he says. “You and I could make it better together. With your goodness, with everything about you that feels and hurts and regrets and refuses to fall no matter what you’ve done, Todd, if we combined that with how I can lead men, how I can control them–”
“They don’t wanna be controlled,” I say.
His eyes, I can’t look away from ’em–
“Not that kind of control, Todd,” he says. “Peaceful control, benevolent control–”
And the joy–
I feel it–
“Like the leader of the Spackle has over his own people,” the Mayor keeps saying. “That’s the voice I’ve been hearing. The one voice. They’re him and he’s them and that’s how they survive, that’s how they learn and grow and exist.” He’s breathing heavy now, the burn gel on his face making him look like he’s coming up from under water. “I can be that for the people here, Todd. I can be their voice. And you can help me. You can help me be better. You can help me be good.”
And I’m thinking–
I could help him–
I could–
(no–)
“Let me go,” I say–
“I’ve known you were special since Prentisstown,” he says, “but it’s only today, only when you saved me that I realized exactly why.”
He grips me harder.
“You’re my soul, Todd,” he says, the crowd around us swooning at how strong he says it and their Noise confirming it and answering it back. “You’re my soul and I’ve been looking for you without even knowing it.” He smiles at me wonderingly. “And I’ve found you, Todd. I’ve found you–”
And then there’s a sound, a different sound, coming from somewhere at the edges of the crowd, a murmuring in their Noise, rumbling its way from the far end of the square towards us.
“A Spackle,” the Mayor whispers, seconds before I see it, surprisingly clear in the Noise of the crowd.
There’s a Spackle coming up the road on a battlemore.
“And . . .” the Mayor says, frowning slightly and standing up to look.
“And what?” I say–
But then I see it in the crowd Noise, too–
The Spackle’s not alone–
There are two battlemores–
And then I hear it–
I hear the sound that turns the entire world upside down–
{VIOLA}
I press hard through the crowd, caring less and less if I’m stepping on people or shoving them out of the way, especially since most of them barely seem to notice. Even the women, who seem caught up in the moment, their faces filled with the same strange anticipation–
“Move,” I say, through gritted teeth.
Because I’m realizing it now, too late, too late, that of course the Mayor’s got inside Todd, of course he has, and maybe Todd has changed him, changed him for the better, no doubt, but the Mayor’s always been stronger, always been smarter, and changing for the better doesn’t mean that he’s ever going to reach good and of course he’s been changing Todd, too, of course he has, how could I be so stupid not to see it, not to talk to him–
Not to save him–
“Todd!” I call–
But it’s drowned out by a surge in the Noise of the crowd, images from the far side where something’s happening, something that’s being passed along through the Noise of the people seeing it, spreading through the crowd–
Noise that shows two Spackle coming up the road–
Two Spackle on battlemores, one of them sitting rather than standing–
And with a jolt, I see that the standing one is the same Spackle who attacked me–
But there’s no time for that feeling, because the Noise suddenly corrects itself–
And the seated Spackle isn’t a Spackle–
It’s a man–
And in the Noise of the crowd, passed along like a baton in a race, I can hear it–
The man is singing–
[TODD]
My stomach drops outta the bottom of my feet and my breath feels like I’m choking and my legs are moving and I’m tearing outta the Mayor’s grip, feeling the bruises as he don’t wanna let me go–
But I’m going–
Oh, Christ, I’m going–
“Todd!” he calls after me, real shock in his voice, real pain that I’m running from him–
But I’m running–
There ain’t nothing gonna stop me from running–
“MOVE!” I shout–
And the soldiers and men in front of me move right outta the way, like they didn’t even decide to themselves–
Cuz they didn’t–
“Todd!” I hear behind me still, the Mayor, but getting farther behind–
Cuz up ahead–
Oh, Jesus, I don’t believe it I don’t believe it–
“MOVE IT!”
And I’m trying to listen, trying to listen for the sound again, trying to listen for the song–
And the crowd keeps moving, getting outta my way like I’m a fire come to burn ’em–
And the Spackle’s coming thru their Noise, too–
It’s 1017–
The Spackle is 1017–
“NO!” I call and run even harder–
Cuz I don’t know what it means that 1017 is here–
But there he is in the Noise of the crowd–
Getting brighter and clearer as I get closer–
Way clearer than Noise usually is–
“Todd!” I hear behind me–
But I don’t stop–
Cuz as I’m getting closer even the rising Noise of the crowd can’t cover it up–
The song–
Clear as the air–
Ripping my heart right in two–
The song, my song–
Early one mo-o-rning, just as the sun was rising . . .
And my eyes are wetting and the crowd is thinning and the path they’re clearing for me is meeting the path they’re clearing for the Spackle–